Finnish people are humble and honest, but not very talkative. We don’t make a big deal out of ourselves. Finnish are gentle and thoughtful like the Moomins. Our education and public health care system are high-class and funded by taxes. In Finland we have a very good waste recycling system and we appreciate our nature. The Finnish passports is one of the best in the world: You can get to 175 from 218 countries with the Finnish passport without a visa.

A frosty winter day

The nature has a huge impact in the Finnish mentality. We live in a country of 200 000 lakes and almost every family has a summer cottage (by the lake of course). The best way to spend the summer vacation is to go to your summer cottage, have a sauna, swim and eat barbecue food. The Finnish sauna there is hot (preferably 80 to 100 Celsius) and the best ones are heated with wood rather than electricity.

Pure and bright waters of the lake Saimaa

Finnish people are people of the woods: We pick berries and fungus from the forests during the fall and spend our vacations doing activities in the nature, such as skiing, fishing and hiking. In Finland we have these Everyman’s rights, which allows us to hike, pick berries and camp in the nature, no matter who owns the land, as far as we don’t make a damage or disturb others.

Finnish summer

In Finland we have four seasons, which all come with their unique beauty. In the Finnish Lapland the sun doesn’t set at all during the summer and in the winter the polar night lasts about 50 days during which the sun doesn’t show at all. But you don’t have to go all the way to the Lapland to experience the beauty of Finnish nature: In the winter, if your lucky, you can spot the aurora borealis for example in Tampere also. The Finnish summer is short but lovely: The people come out of their shells, there’s a lot of laughter and joy, and people spend their time outdoors as much as they can.

The springtime in Finland

Finland has it’s own national epic, the Kalevala, compiled in the 19th Century by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish folklore and mythology. The tale begings with the traditional Finnish creation myth and is followed by a lot of magical spell casting and singing. There are stories of lust, romance, betrayal and seduction and the nature is present throughout the story in the scenery and dialogue. J. R. R. Tolkien has told that he has taken inspiration from the Kalevala to create the elf language to his famous fantasy trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.

A beautiful summer night in Tampere

On a nightout, Finnish people love to drink beer, tell bad jokes and sing karaoke. Finnish is the only language that has a word for getting drunk at home wearing only your underwear, it’s “kalsarikännit”.

What is it like to live in Finland? For me it means clean air, quiet green forests, snowy fields and in the summer a sunny archipelago. I absolutely adore my home country when it comes to the peaceful nature where you can escape from the hustle and bustle of the somewhat busy lifestyle. The weather isn’t that nice most of the time, but when it is, you really come to appreciate it and make the most of your time outdoors. You really come to value the little things living in Finland: a little ray of sun in the morning can make your whole day. Everywhere is pretty in the summer and people are beaming happiness. Or some of them, because it’s a common joke that it’s always either too hot or too cold. The Finns are pale most of the year but in the summer they turn red or if they are lucky, get nicely tanned and that’s how you have achieved the most important task in the summer.

Peace and quiet.

Finnish people are pretty quiet but if you start talking to them, you rarely get an ill answer. Still, do not sit next to someone in a bus if there are free seats, that’s one of the most important things you need to learn if you come to visit Finland. It will make everyone cringe. Being a Finn is pretty neat. You get ”free” education and monetary support to your studies from your government. Our education is great compared to other countries and our academic skills are well valued. It’s also really safe here. Top 3 biggest fears, at least for me, are being bitten by snake (which we have 2 kinds of which nether is deadly venomous and are only seen in the nature in summer), killed by a bear (which is really unlikely) or being stabbed (usually involves intoxicating substance usage and debts so for normal citizen this fear is also very unlikely) We really are proud hockey people and we always want to win the Swedish. Besides drinking milk like newborn babies and being coffee addicts, one of our biggest pet peeves is using alcohol – and usually too much of it. Still, I’m lucky to be a Finn and even though in the future I plan to live abroad for a while, I still want to live most of my life in Finland.

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Finland is the beautiful nature we have. In Finland we have all four seasons summer, autumn, winter and spring. Summers aren’t that warm here in Finland. During the summer Finns visit their summer cottages, barbeques and enjoy life. In Finland we have so called “yötön yö” which means that sun doesn’t set at all.

Autumn is very beautiful in Finland. Trees turn to red and yellow. It is time to go mushrooming and picking up apples. Autumn is also perfect time to go hikinng.

In Finland we get lots of snow during the winter (at least in the north). Winter is cold and dark. In wintertime we have so called “kaamos” which means that sun doesn’t rise at all. It is the opposite to the “yötön yö” that we have in the summer. We have a lot of winter activities such as skiing, ice-hockey, snowboarding and etc. One very Finnish thing to do in the winter is to go swimming into the frozen lake/river. Finns drill hole into the ice and dips in. It is common to go to sauna to warm up afterwards.

When the spring comes people are very happy, because cold and dark winter is behind us and the summer is coming!

Finland – the land of thousand lakes, lush green nature and shy people who are hard to get to know and go to sauna a lot. As a Finn, I’ve heard this a gazillion times and as all of those notions are true, there is more to us Finns than meets the eye.

As there are so many forests and lakes, it is natural (pun intended) that our culture has become so closely entwined with it – in the past as provider of food and shelter and today as a sanctuary where people can rest and forget the hectic outside world. The feeling you get from watching the sun set behind a lake, seeing the Northern Lights dance upon a frosty winter sky or just gazing at the stars in dark autumn night is just indescribable and it has had a profound effect in us.

There are even studies about how walking in a forest will lower your blood pressure in 20 minutes and I believe that we Finns have known this all along, nature gives us peace of mind and we just want to enjoy it. That background added with the traditional Finnish logic of if you don’t have anything meaningful to say, it is better to be quiet and say nothing at all. That can easily show differently on the outside and is at least partly the reason why Finns are so unfamiliar with small talk.

I remember reading an article about which European citizens travel the most and was really surprised to find Finns in the top 3. The article explained that Finns don’t travel abroad that much but the reason that put them in top places of list was, of course, summer cottages. And there was a staggering number of 502 900 of them in 2016. So that’s where we are, not talking and going to saunas most of the time.

My theory is that the nature has shaped us into who we are and how we see the world and personally, I couldn’t be happier.

I love Finnish winter and especially Christmas. In our family Christmas is the biggest and most awaited time of the year because then our whole family meets together to eat and drink. We also exchange gifts on Christmas Eve and even begin buying presents for the year after in January. Yeah, that’s really crazy but our family loves to buy and especially make the presents by themselves. My granny knits socks,my mum is always baking, my little sister paints or draws something and I usually make some decoration like candles, wreaths or decoration lights.

I also love the Finnish winter but I live in the South so there isn’t the kind of winter that I like – snow, snow and much more snow. That’s why I go to Lapland almost every year with my family or friends. Our family love skiing, skating, snowboarding and downhill skiing.

Lapland is the largest and northernmost region of Finland. Although Lapland is the largest region in Finland, only 3.4% of Finland’s population lives there. The very first snowflakes fall to the ground in late August or early September over the higher peaks and the winter is long, approximately seven months. The coldest temperatures in winter vary from -35°C to -45°C in Lapland but if you wear your thickest winter jacket and beanie you will survive 😉

Finland is well known for a beautiful nature. There are many places where you should go and see. Lapland is of course one of the best-known places in Northern Finland. There are also amazing places in Southern Finland which are not that well known.

Now I tell you about one place in the Southern Finland which is called Kiikunlähde. Nature Spring is located in Hollola, Finland. Spring is 400 meters long and 100 meters wide. The water is so blue and bright that you can see the bottom of the Spring. I visited there last summer with my friend and I think it was worth it. For example, you can make a road trip with your friends in the summer and visit there during that trip. Kiikunlähde
There is also lots of other places where you can add to your road trip. Repovesi National Park is located in Kouvola, Finland and it’s not far away from Kiikunlähde. Nuuksio National Park is located in Helsinki metropolitan area. Both of those places are full of activities so you don’t get bored. You can hike, canoe or bicycle all day long. I think National Parks is good way to see the Finnish nature.Necessary tourist picture

Weird people somewhere North, living in one of the safest countries in the world, speaking on the the most difficult languages in the world? Yes.

Finland is a country of thousands lakes and endless forests. Our nature is clean, our air is clean, even our water is so clean that you could drink it from the toilet seat. We have those famous incredible Aurora Borealis, wild nature, animals like bears, reindeers, reindeers, bears.. And.. there is always cold in Finland? Usyally, yes. All lovely four seasons. Spring, summer, autumn, winter. Wintertime is long and dark, and this time we call KAAMOS. It is totally basic to get desperate because of it. Nowadays there might be even less light because of climate changing and having less snow in winter time. Every spring we get shocked when we see the sun again and it takes time to get used to it again. But you should be better to get used to it, because in summer the sun is shining all day and all night. Its better to have a evening-job or blackout curtain if you want get sleep in summertime.

We are silent and shy. We really enjoy the silence and loneliness and we say something only when we have to – or when we have something important to say. To us is quite familiar to feel uncomfortable in social situations and we do not know the word ”small-talk”. And it is totally okay to have long silent gaps in a conversation. Our most popular topic is weather and we never get tired of talking about it.
We do not spent our days daydreaming – we think it is good to have feet on the ground. We have the Finnish thing called SISU. The thing that help us go trough nearly everything that we decide to. We are honest hard-workers and have relentless work ethic.
Finnish people always follow rules. If the road is empty and you can not see a soul anywhere, but the traffic light is red, you don’t cross the street. We are precise and usually always on time – but our trains are always late.

When we are kids (or just sick at home) we watch Moomins. We love to ski and play ice hockey and when our parents where kids they all went to school by cross-country skiing. And some of us are still doing it. Quite many, actually. We eat weird things like salmiakki, mämmi, rye bred, Karelia pie and potatoes. Okay potatoes are not weird but we eat them all the time. We love to sauna. For us it is totally normal to be naked in front of a stranger and for example go to swim in a lake – even in a wintertime and even if the lake is frozen. (But you should have a hole in it, of course.) Our humor is black and we are sarcastic people. We do not like to be touched by strangers and there is also people who don’t hug even their best friends. Our own space is important to us and the space is also something we really have here. When the fall comes, we go to the forest to pick berries and mushrooms and then freeze them and eat them all year. In summer the best thing for us is to go out of city in to the forest to spend time in summer cottage. That is the place where is no electricity or other luxuries – and there we can enjoy nature, go sauna and swim in a lake. And.. Yes. We might drink often and when we drink we drink way too much. But it is also the time when you can talk with us, because when we are drunk we finally talk (- before we are too drunk to talk anymore). And whatever other people will say – we know the real Santa Claus is living in Finland.

Okay okay. Maybe these things are just crude, irritating stereotypes and of course Finland is so much more. The question about being finnish is actually not so easy today, because the country, its culture and population is developing and changing all the time. But anyway , I guess there is always a kind of truth hidden in a joke.

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Welcome!

This blog is your window to Finnishness. Here you will find blog posts written by students of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) describing their personal experiences and notions of being a Finn or living in Finland. This blog is part of the course "Intercultural Experiences and Competences" and was started in spring 2016.

You can use the tag cloud to find posts with specific contents, and to find posts from a specific month, use the navigation at the bottom of the page titled “Blog Post Archive”. Feel free to leave comments as well! Enjoy!